


close enough to touch

by emma_cellist



Series: love in unexpected places - a one-shot series [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Family, Fluff, Gen, Grief, Next Generation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-14
Updated: 2017-11-14
Packaged: 2019-02-02 08:57:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12723513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emma_cellist/pseuds/emma_cellist
Summary: Teddy’s gran likes to tell him stories about his mum, but no one knows an awful lot about his dad.





	close enough to touch

You read an article somewhere, once, proclaiming your dad as one of the twenty greatest wizards of all time. It made you smile, seeing his name there on that page. You cut it out, shoved it in your Top Secret Folder under your bed that even Grandma Andromeda (who knows almost everything) doesn’t know about. Every clipping makes you feel like you know him a little better.

Your favourite photo is of the three of you - your mother, your father and you. You’re only tiny, but you have the biggest smile on your face, sandwiched tightly between your parents. Your mum is scrunching up her nose the way Grandma Andromeda says she did when she changed her hair colour. Your gran likes to tell you stories about your mum, but there’s not anyone who knows an awful lot about your dad. 

There’s Uncle Harry, of course. He’s not really your uncle, but he’s as close to family as anyone, and you love him all the same. He tells you about the small things: how your dad smiled - tightly, tiredly, mostly, except when something, usually your mum, made him happy for real. How, when he was a professor, he made Harry the best cup of tea he’s ever had. How, the night you were born, the cavernous lines etched in your dad’s face were barely noticeable because of his smile.

Then there’s Aunt Hermione. She mostly tells you about your dad’s teaching: how everyone loved him, the way the class hung on his every word. Uncle Ron talks about the heroics: the battle, how your dad died fighting to make a better world for you.

There’s Sirius’s portrait, the one no one knew existed until last year. He doesn’t like talking about your dad much. He mostly just stares at you from behind his gilded frame with tears in his eyes, while you shuffle your feet and smile awkwardly. But he’s told you about the nights they spent in the Shrieking Shack together, the primal warmth of their bodies piled together as your dad fought off his demons.

But they all say the same thing: he loved you. He loved you more than anything; fiercely, ferociously. And that’s where they all stop, because their cheeks are wet and there’s a lump in their throat. You wander away, imagining his hand on your shoulder, his warm embrace. You don’t know him; you never will. But some days, he feels close enough to touch.


End file.
